


Can't Be Fooled Twice

by JayBarou



Category: Avengers, Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Pre-Loki/Tony Stark, set after civil war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 07:35:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6895777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBarou/pseuds/JayBarou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki feels how his story is being told again in the shape of a human and he lurks, hoping for a better ending to his tale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Be Fooled Twice

**Author's Note:**

> I’m worried about the parallels between Loki and Tony, so I wrote this slightly different final scene of CA:CW to… hmmm… complete the circle?

Loki had felt the strings of fate from the Throne of Asgard, and after the problems he had had with that Hulk thing and Thor, his work was done and he felt compelled to leave. He needed to follow the strings that felt almost like reincarnation had happened before the Ragnarok. He thought he would find some black-haired and green-eyed child with a brother that outshone him. He was wrong. Instead of new blood, he found a familiar face.

This is what he found:

Stark had a very familiar set of experiences: The public opinion had mixed feelings about him, no matter what he did; he dragged his mistakes, never completely forgiven; he had a powerful family who didn’t act like a loving family; he had a blond, trusted, brother in bond if not in blood; he had the head to think ahead of the rest... He resonated with Loki deeply.

So he stayed and watched.

He saw the fight between the Captain’s heart and Stark’s mind. Loki could understand part of the Captain’s motives, of course. Loki would love to read over those accords, but he could see that signing them would limit the Avenger’s power and would make them the sword in the politicians’ right hand. That could be a disaster.

“The Mighty heroes; a weapon in the hands of the tyrants, so much like it used to be with Thor, Sif, the Warriors Three... and I” he muttered for himself from his hidden spot in the room.

Loki almost, _almost,_ for a moment, could understand the Captain better than Stark. But then, there was the public opinion. Loki understood that heroes needed to either stay golden –pay for their mistakes– be held accountable, or hide away and be hated and feared. He also understood that signing would mean resources, public support, a politic play that Stark knew how to play and it would mean that there were rules with loopholes to use.

Feelings aside, Loki could follow Stark’s tactical mind. He would have done the same if he had ever had that kind of power over Asgard while sound of mind, pretend to bend his knee and work from the shadows. Alas, when he was the rightful king he had been blinded by the rage and grief of a terrible truth. Stark was free of that pain: many things weighed him, but he had a clear mind.

“I wonder... If I had had, ha, a cooler mind when I found out...” Loki wondered, laughing sadly.

He saw how teams formed and he saw how each of the sides in that particular game played with their youngest ones. He didn’t like what he saw in either side, but still he understood better Stark’s reasoning. In the end, he understood the Widow’s treason too; they were, or used to be, a team. One of them was down, if they didn’t retreat and let them run away, the fight would have ended with many more torn to shreds.

He still didn’t like what she told Stark about being selfish. But neither were Stark’s words appropriate. Loki understood both of them, they were speaking with too many emotions in their heads, and their confrontation tore him apart more than the open war between Stark and the Captain.

Loki could almost feel on his bones Stark’s strain. It almost hurt him to see how Stark turned around when, by following his own methods, he found that proof that backed up the Captain’s blind faith in his old friend. Loki felt detached, being wrong, again, when he thought he was doing the right thing. He shuddered. Fate kept linking their paths, but they were so different.

“What, what do you want to tell me?! What is the point? He is not me! Won’t ever be! He is damaged, but not beyond repair! I see what you show me, but this is futile! We are different!” Loki shouted once he was sure nobody but fates would hear him.

The main difference: Stark still trusted, still went in the Captain’s aid as a friend. Loki couldn’t do that anymore, and so, he almost left the story there; angry at the fates and their sense of humour. Maybe that was what fate wanted to show him: that if he had trusted more he could have saved himself. However, he felt invested in the story, and he followed Stark.

And then the final piece fell into place. Loki saw how the light of trust that made them so different died down with a few truths. That was the blow that had unmade Loki, all nicely mixed up with the loss of his mother. Loki almost let out a maniac laugh that would have revealed his position, but it was hysterical.

“This would have stayed a secret forever if they had listened to Stark,” he almost burst into nervous giggles. “They wouldn’t have fallen into this trap.” Loki wheezed and cast a silence spell before something slipped out. “Stark was right all along, they had to investigate further before jumping into action.” Tears started to flood his eyes and he wasn’t sure of why. “Just as I wouldn’t have discovered what I am if someone had listened when I said THOR WASN’T READY!” he shouted in rage as the heroes fought around him.

Loki dared to look up and he was reminded of Thor’s face in any, _in all,_ of their fights. He couldn’t stand to see that there was no love left, just like Thor. There were attempts to keep Loki tame, to stop his rage, but never an apology, because they thought they were right.

Every hit to Stark hurt him, but he stood there. Maybe if Stark won... maybe if he succeeded where Loki had failed... Loki would feel vindicated, ha! Loki would feel avenged. But it didn’t look like Stark would win anything.

Then fate decided to finish what it had started.

A vicious hit of the Shield broke Stark’s suit, and as the blue lights died down in an uncontrolled fashion, the machine blew a final beam that destabilized Stark and made him fall backwards into an abyss: certain death. Stark grabbed what he could in a desperate final effort and his hand found one of the two straps of the shield. The captain was holding the other strap. The soldier was looking over from behind with a frightened face, like he recognized the scene.

The Captain still tried to make Stark see why he was in the right.

“He is my friend!” he shouted over the noise of the snowstorm.

“So was I!” Stark shouted back.

There was a tense silence, but the Captain finally broke it with a firm tone that managed to be solemn and final, and with it, Loki’s hopes for a different ending.

“Not like him.”

Loki knew what was about to happen, he knew that look of disappointment and failure all too well. Stark let go of the shield, and those two overmuscled idiots still had the gall to look surprised.

Loki only wondered for half a second if he should snatch that kindred soul from the void that would swallow him. Even if he survived the fall, nothing would be right ever again, Loki knew firsthand how trust was now almost unreachable.

Maybe he was only being selfish, maybe he wanted to prove that he could bend that human’s destiny and rescue him from following Loki’s path, or maybe he was playing right into the fate’s plans (It had been a villain who rescued Loki from the void too, after all).

In any case, Loki didn’t regret teleporting Stark back to safety, away from the two soldiers. Thanos had destroyed Loki; Loki intended to rebuild Stark before he was completely gone, and for that, he would need to have back a life, a support that Loki never had. Stark and Loki were two wronged ones of fate, and they say two wrongs don’t make a right, but this might be the exception.

Loki was already making plans: he would make Stark listen to his side of the story, then he’d make himself at home in Stark’s life, he would build trust in the base of that legless friend of Stark and he would manipulate things to make the Widow come back. The witch and Vision would come too, she was scared of herself and wanted to repent; she would understand better Stark than the Captain in no time.

Of course that Ross individual would have to go, and the Sokovia accords could use the hand of a trickster in them. But this, THIS, could be his next big project, worth his time, and it would overlap perfectly with the destruction of Thanos. Loki had united the Avengers once, he could do it again, and he could make room for himself this time now that Thor was busy in Asgard’s Throne.

So Stark wouldn’t invade the Earth with a horde of Chitauri any time soon, Loki would make sure of that, but there would be some chaos and fireworks in the future.

First things first, Stark was disorientated, still trapped in his useless suit, and shocked of seeing Loki; but willing to live now that the abyss wasn't calling from below. 

“My life wasn’t bad enough as it was, of course, you had to appear.”

Loki kept a neutral face. “Your life is chaos. It was calling me." Loki rushed to continue: "But before you complain and make a rash decision, give me time to speak, and to propose a deal.”

“I’m done with signing or not signing shit.”

“I expected as much, so I’ll leave here something to contact me if you feel like there is something we could discuss. For now, I leave you to your friend.”

Loki didn’t leave, he merely made himself invisible and dropped a magic-less crystal ball. Stark didn’t touch it for hours. He got rid of the suit, he checked on his few loyal ones and he let grief get to him in a slightly less violent way than before. Once Barnes was out of the picture, Stark could deal with the blow, like he always seemed to do. He bounced back and made plans to look forward, he designed crutches for his friend, he helped that spider-kid of his...

And he finally took the crystal, with curiosity, but not quite tempted by it, not yet. Loki still smiled when Stark didn’t destroy it. And he knew Stark would react the way he wanted when he saw him spending long periods of time looking at it, as if it could answer why Loki had saved him. Loki was patient, very patient when it suited him, and then it happened.

A package came with an apology, in the way Thor phrased his apologies too, a mild approach to a middle ground that never admitted to any wrong. There was a phone with it, and a suspiciously well-timed phone call about the prison-break. Of course Stark played in favour of the betraying heroes, for the bond they once shared, but he regarded the phone with distrust.

Stark reached forward with a shaking hand...

... and he picked the crystal ball that had been sitting on his desk all that time.

Loki smirked.


End file.
